By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Show Focus: Just like last week, it was good to see Raw have a strong focus. This week, the show focused on the search for a #1 contender for Sheamus' WWE Championship. I liked the set up for this angle. It really was a unique storyline for the General Manager to allow Sheamus to watch a series of matches with possible opponents and pick whom he would like to face at Night of Champions. The opening segment set up the theme for the show with the series of matches and Sheamus watching from the stage. The announcers did a nice job of discussing the possible picks and whether Sheamus would really pick the wrestler who impressed him the most, or take more of an easy way out. Within the context of that theme, they also continued to build on the Miz vs. Daniel Bryan feud and followed up on the LayCool vs. Melina angle from SummerSlam, building to two more potential PPV matches.

Miz's Interview: The Miz gave a great interview in the back with Josh Mathews responding to that John Cena had said about him earlier in the show. He gave a very good performance on the mic (as usual). I like that he explained why he didn't cash in his Money in the Bank opportunity at SummerSlam despite Sheamus being vulnerable. He actually made some really good points about Cena's ego and how Cena embarrassed him at the PPV (Cena could have told him in the back, but chose to wait until he could embarrass him in front of the WWE Universe). It also added more fuel to the fire for his upcoming match against Cena.

Miz vs. Cena: What a difference a year makes. Last year, The Miz seemed poised to break out with a series of great promos on John Cena. When their first big match finally came, Cena got a pretty decisive victory with Miz not really looking like a future main event wrestler. Right now, that is exactly what Miz looks like. His mic work has continued to be as strong as ever, and even has improved. But, his in ring work is what really is starting to stand out. He's had some ups and downs. There was a lot of criticism for his match on Raw a few weeks back against Randy Orton (one of the downs). I doubt there will be the same type of criticism for this match with Cena. They worked well together in the ring. Cena did a nice job of selling for Miz and the match was built to make Miz look strong. He got several near falls on Cena. He was able to fight the STF and get to the ropes. He was able to avoid the AA, at least during the match. The match had good wrestling action, and both wrestlers played their parts well as Miz sold frustration over not being able to put Cena away. The ending worked well as it kept Miz strong, but also advanced his feud with Daniel Bryan.

RAW MISSES

End of the Show: This was a pretty good episode of Raw. Other than the one Hit-worthy match, the rest of the wrestling was all solid. None of the other matches were good enough to get Hits, but none of them were bad enough to get Misses either. A strong focus, a great interview, a very good match, and nothing else bad in between had Raw set up looking like a very strong show quality wise heading into the final segment. Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with the final segment. The idea that Sheamus would simply pick Zack Ryder instead of any of the wrestlers in the try out matches made a joke out of the entire show. Fans who invested themselves into the matches were let down. Even the announcers acknowledged the fact that the rest of the show meant nothing at that point. I liked that Wade Barrett got involved to cash in his Title opportunity from winning NXT Season 1 (although the whole idea of "cashing in" Title opportunities is a little played out so soon after the Money in the Bank PPV). Sheamus and Barrett both did a really good job of reacting to the announcement that in addition to Barrett, Sheamus would defend his Title against four other challengers as well. But, the segment quickly went down hill again with the cheesy way those four wrestlers were already queued up and waiting to come out. Did the GM let Chris Jericho, Edge, Randy Orton and John Cena know ahead of time to be ready? It was just a little too convenient for my tastes. We already have some PPVs with built in multi wrestler Championship matches (Elimination Chamber, Fatal Four Way), so I was disappointed that we will get another at Night of Champions, although it was actually very predicable. With this PPV's format, if Sheamus only had one opponent, the rest of the Raw upper card would be off the show. If you want to continue Sheamus vs. Orton, but also feature Cena, Barrett, Edge and Jericho, this is what has to happen. I'm worried about a similar thing occurring on Smackdown. Moving on, the circling of Barrett by the other challengers was well done. But, the sudden rapid fire finishers from the other five in the ring was cheesy. It made Cena look like a total idiot for turning his back on Orton. What did he expect to happen? It was a poor ending to what was an otherwise pretty good show.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Superstars each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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